Drake Real Estate Partners Announces Final Close of DREP Fund V, Surpassing Target at $515+ Million

Drake Real Estate Partners has closed its fifth flagship fund, building on long-term partnerships and fostering new relationships across the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Asia.

NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Drake Real Estate Partners ("Drake"), a real estate investment manager pursuing a value-add strategy focused on under the radar opportunities, announced the closing of its fifth flagship fund, Drake Real Estate Partners Fund V ("DREP Fund V" or the "Fund") with more than $515 million in commitments, exceeding its $500 million target in one of the most challenging fundraising environments in recent history.

Drake's investor base has evolved and diversified from its original roots in large LatAm based family offices to a predominantly U.S. institutional capital base in DREP Fund V. "We surpassed our $500 million target raise with $515 million, plus co-investment allocations" said Nicolas Ibanez, co-founder and President of Drake. "This outcome is a testament to the long-term relationships we've built and our deliberate expansion into the U.S. and European institutional landscape, which complements our longstanding ties in Latin America. Achieving this scale of fundraising in the current environment is not only a major milestone, it's a strategic advantage as we deploy capital in a heavily dislocated environment."

The year and a half fundraising period required persistence and focus, Ibanez noted. "It was a constant dance requiring us to amplify our message among existing and prospective investors who were seeking differentiated access to U.S. real estate," he said. "Drake focuses on niche real estate sectors, and smaller, under-the-radar opportunities that are often overlooked. In a market undergoing a structural reset, managers with flexible capital are able to pivot amid this shift and play with a big advantage. I think that really resonated with smart investors who saw the opportunity, and put us in this favorable position to take advantage of the environment."

Founded in 2012, Drake implements a value-add approach by acquiring income-producing real estate assets, generally at a significant discount to replacement cost, and driving value through repositioning, leasing and improving operations. The Firm focuses predominantly on smaller transactions – generally between $5-25 million of equity – benefiting from the less efficient market dynamics in that target range. Drake frequently acquires its assets from long-time, non-institutional owners, overseeing capital improvements that these assets were previously lacking, and assembling them into attractive, scalable portfolios for future buyers.

"This fund vintage presents one of the most compelling risk/return profiles we've seen since the Firm's inception," said David Cotterman, Drake co-founder and Chief Investment Officer. "We're creating value-add to opportunistic type returns while taking core plus to light value-add risk, in longstanding themes we've researched and invested in for more than 13 years."

Over the past five years, Drake has increasingly pursued fragmented sub-sectors within industrial and residential themes, such as industrial outdoor storage ("IOS"), small bay industrial, and manufactured housing ("MH"), while opportunistically accessing more traditional property types, such as multifamily and data centers. The firm sources most acquisitions directly from owners, bypassing intermediaries and broadly marketed processes. "Drake's growing focus on smaller assets allows us to create programmatic platforms with our partners and efficiently deploy capital in less liquid markets," Cotterman said. "We aggregate portfolios of assets that are individually too small for most institutional investors. This marriage of institutional expertise and smaller assets in niche property types creates a unique edge for Drake."

To date, IOS represents one of Drake's highest conviction playbooks in DREP Fund V. The sector benefits from sustained demand across the broader industrial and logistics ecosystem, coupled with extremely limited new supply. These dynamics have driven rental growth that consistently outpaces traditional industrial assets, drawing increased institutional interest, particularly for larger portfolios such as the one Drake is actively assembling.

Within the residential space, Drake's primary playbook in DREP Fund V has been manufactured housing ("MH"), where Drake executes what is mostly a land-lease model in which the firm owns and leases the land beneath residents' homes. This approach is capital expenditure-light compared to traditional multifamily strategies, and targets a niche market defined by a persistent supply/demand imbalance. New development remains rare due to widespread NIMBY opposition, even as rental demand and growth fundamentals remain strong - driven by a sustained systemic housing shortage and rising construction costs.

Another notable opportunistic investment in the Fund includes a GP interest in a 1,000+ megawatt hyperscale data center development platform anchored by top tier tenants.

About Drake Real Estate Partners
Founded in 2012, Drake Real Estate Partners is a New York-based real estate investment manager with a track record of identifying and executing on under-the-radar opportunities across the U.S. The firm focuses on value-add strategies in income-producing assets, generally acquired at a significant discount to replacement cost. Drake has completed over $3.0 billion in transactions, leveraging its flexible capital and long-term mindset to invest across sectors and geographies.

Drake is a proud member of 1% For The Planet, committing 1% of the firm's revenues to environmental nonprofits in the communities where it operates, and it represents its anchor initiative withing DREP BUILDS, Drake's holistic approach to sustainability and real estate resilience.

For further information, visit www.drakerep.com.

Contact
Drake Real Estate Partners
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SOURCE Drake Real Estate Partners